LAKE COUNTY — While the Ely Stage Stop”s new address is still displayed in blue spray paint on a piece of plywood along Highway 281, a lot has been getting done onsite.
A new wrap-around porch has been added to the building, the exterior has been refinished and painted, a parking lot installed and a road cut into the property.
In the next phase of the project crews will tackle the inside of the building and add three or four barns behind the Stage Stop to house the larger relicts that will be displayed at the museum when it”s completed. These range from tools and farming equipment to rare wagons and engines from the1800s.
While the project has been in the works for years, tasks have been going faster since the building crossed the highway to it current location, 9921 Soda Bay Road, said Wilda Shock, Lake County Wine Alliance director.
“Once this got moved here and the community got involved, it”s made a big difference,” she said.
Members of the community have proven instrumental in the completion of the latest tasks, said Greg Dills, Ely Stage Stop & Country Museum”s chairman. Scott DeLeon offered to do the engineering plans for the barns, an inmate crew from the Sheriff”s Department helped move old bricks that were once the building”s fireplace, Jackson Equipment in Middletown offered to cut the road on the property and donated the personnel and tractor needed for the two-day job, and several others have lent their help to move the project along.
“It”s very gratifying. I couldn”t do this without the volunteers,” Dills said. “I was a committee of one, but since people joined on, it”s really moved along.”
On the inside, the crews have begun restoring the house, working from top to bottom. As long as funding holds up, the restoration inside could be complete in two or three months, Stock said.
Construction of the planned barns will begin as soon as the committee has enough money for them and for a fire hydrant, a requirement for fire protection. All of these projects need funding, however, something that has always been a challenge for the project, Dills said. But one thing the steering committee in charge of the project has plenty of is artifacts to display in both the main structure and the planned barns.
Currently, several residents around the around the county are storing relics that will be housed in the Ely Stage Stop once structures are finished, Dills said.
“Once they go up, they”ll be filled,” Shock said.
Once the project is complete, the Lake County Historical society will take over the facility, relying once again on volunteers this time to man the museum.
“The vision of the historical society is to capture the history of Lake County,” Greg said.
To make donations to the Ely Stage Stop project, the public can contact Dills at 263-4180, extension 12, or e-mail him at elystagestop@yahoo.com. He hopes to get at least one of these up this year before winter hits.
Contact Olga Munoz at onmunoz@gmail.com or call her directly at 263-5636, ext. 37.
